The Dominican Republic- Part 1

I spent a week in the Dominican Republic surveying reefs, setting up nursery experiments and hanging out at Julio Igelsias' house.

Our first mission of the trip was to survey a megapopulation of Acropora cervicornis in the Parque Nacional de Monte Cristi near the town of Punta Rusia (or Rucia depending of which map you are looking at). 

To get there, we flew into the Santiago airport and then had to spend a little time trying to get all of our gear

plus personnel in the van.

Britt poses in front of the Dominican flag at the airport.

We then drove to Punta Rusia and got a beautiful view of the mountains on the way there.

It took us about 2 hours to drive from the Santiago airport- it's only about 50 miles away, but heavy traffic in the cities and poor road conditions and livestock in the road makes the driving slow.

We finally arrived in Punta Rusia, which is just a small fishing village on the northern coast of Hispanola.

A view of Punta Rusia- a sophisticated metropolis!

As you can see, Punta Rusia was a very small town.  All of the roads are dirt, there aren't any commercialized businesses and most of the buildings are in various stages of disrepair.  One little tin shack down the street only had one candle glowing inside after dark.  Although is wasn't posh, there was still a sense of community pride.  This sign says "Punta Rusia is a paradise. Don't damage it, now or ever."

Our hotel was quite charming though.  We stayed with Lulu who runs one of the three guesthouses in Punta Rusia and it's right on the water!

What a lovely view from our balcony!

I couldn't get enough of the beautiful water and cute boats!

Check out the view of the water at sunset!

To our surprise, we each got our own room with a double bed, mosquito net and wonderful view of the ocean.

The pink stairs were awesome!

View of the street on a quiet Sunday morning.

Our hotel was very safe though with 7 guard dogs........

And 11 cats!  Brittany learned she had to keep her balcony door closed or they would come in and fight under her bed!

Our first night in town, we walked up the street to one of the restaurants in town- service was a little slow considering that the owner would tell us what was available and then go and fetch the ingredients from up the street. Let's just say that everything served was local! 

A much deserved cerveza after a long day of traveling!

Our first dinner in Punta Rusia. Look at all that lobster. It's a bit ironic that we are saying that the reefs are in a state of decline because food webs are out of sinc (i.e. there are too many coral predators like fireworms and snails because we have over fished the lobsters and groupers), yet here we are downing the yummy lobster. The fish was amazing too!

After an amazing dinner and a restful night's sleep, Brittany says it's time to get to work!

Let me introduce you to the participants:  (from top left to right) Travis, Britt, me, Diego, Lulu (with two canine friends) and Austin.

Every morning, Lulu would make us breakfast- fresh bread with cheese and jelly, heuos (eggs made to order), and papas (homestyle potoatoes). The Dominican coffee is the best, but since I can't drink coffee and dive (it gives me indigestion!), she would always offer me some aqua caliente for tea.

The purpose of your trip was to document a large monotypic (which means there's almost exclusively one species of coral) stand of Acropora cervicornis which is an endangered species and is relatively hard to find although it was once a main reef builder. The long slender branches form great fish habitat and is designed for high energy areas such as surf zones. Unfortunately, it's very fragile and susceptible to bleaching and disease. So, why is this population still here and why hasn't anyone officially documented it yet? That's why we were there!

The Lirman Lab posse ready for action!

Our dive panga (small boat).  We each had our specific tasks to perform: Britt and I conducted fish surveys, Travis and Diego conducted coral surveys and took measurements and Austin surveyed the colonies for signs of disease and removed fireworms and snails.  When we hopped in the water the first time, my jaw dropped!  It was spectacular!

(Photo credit: B. Huntington)

This is what an Acropora reef should look like!

Steph and the coral.....Awesome!

The reef was amazing. I have never seen as much staghorn coral before in my life.....and I'm combining all of the staghorn coral on all of the reefs that I have ever been diving on! This reef was about 700 meters by 200 meters (by our calculations) and had about 65% coral cover! Unfortunately, there was quite a bit less than just two years ago- the last time anyone on our team had been there. There was quite a bit of fireworm and snail predation and many damselfish have created their lawns here too.

Here I am conducting coral transects- we measure each colony to determine the amount of live tissue and identify any disease or predation.

Travis and Diego conduct coral survey transects.

I'm attempting to demonstrate just how much coral there was!

We hope to turn our data into a paper to document this amazing resource and hopefully bring some protection to the ecosystem. Although the reef is part of the national park, it is still open for fishing and therefore coral cover and fish populations are declining.

In addition to the amazing A. cervicornis, there was lots of other cools things to see too!

(Photo credit: B. Huntington)

Like this cute reef squid.

Who wasn't as interested in us and we were with it.  I almost drowned after laughing when we spooked the little guy and made him ink. I'd never seen it happen before and I was amazed at how gelatinous it seemed. It hung in the water forever!

Here's a little moon jelly.

Anemone

A Porites astreoides colony straight out of a Dr. Suess book! Bioerosion at work!

A flamingo tongue snail feeding on a gorgonian (soft coral related to sea fans).

We stopped one afternoon to snorkel around Cayo Arena, a small sand island surrounded by a small reef. It was a fantastic display of typical reef progression with Acropora palmata on top, Acropora cervicornis in
the middle and then larger mounding corals such as Porites, Montastrea and Dendrogyra on the bottom.

Britt and I snorkel at Cayo Arena

Acropora palmata

A line of snails munching away at a Montastra colony- in time, they will devour the entire colony!

I actually got to see my very first Dendrogyra colony. Colonies can be up to 10 feet tall! 

Britt snorkels down to love the Dendrogyra!

Travis caught a crab at Cayo Arena.

Our team after a hard day's work!

Shacks at Cayo Arena

A view of the Dominican Republic. Did you know that the highest and lowest points in the Caribbean are located in the Dominican Republic? The lowest point is a freshwater lake: Lago Enriquillo at -46 m deep. The highest point is in the northern mountain range: Pico Duarte at 3,175 m.

So pretty- this is why I love my job!!

Our second night, we checked out the local fish market for dinner. Fresh from the ocean.....parrotfish. They use their beak-like teeth to scrape algae and coral from the reef.

Travis just found out that parrotfish are a major source of sand and can produce almost 200 lbs of sand a year. Think about that the next time you are walking down the beach!

The parrotfish kitchen- they also had lobster, shrimp, crab and squid.

How many times have you seen a chicken in a tree? I was slightly afraid that this one may poop on me (and some of you know how often that happens!).

The Dominican Republic is known for it's rum. So, we decided to try some (or an entire bottle). Tasty!

And we ended our meal with a beautiful sunset in Punta Rusia!

A little behind

I have to apologize for being so slow in posting pictures from my recent trip to the Dominican Republic. I've been organizing all of my photos to share, but have also been busy a presentation for a conference this week in my next exotic destination....Wilmington, North Carolina. So, stay tuned!

It all started here....

Way back in 1999, I participated in my very first scientific research trip to the National Undersea Research Center on Key Largo, Florida.  This is where I learning how to work underwater, identify coral species and discovered my love of mucus.  So, almost 11 years later, I went back to NURC for a couple of days of diving and field work.

They've really upgraded the quality of their dive boats.  Here's a view of the R/V George Bond.

Sun Cruz- still there....taking people's money.  This boat goes out each day 3 miles off the coast into international waters where gambling is legal.  We used to have pose offs in the windows as we passed by (anything for a laugh).

My lab had placed some coral pieces on PVC racks in different depths of water to determine the effecg of shading and sedimentation on growth.  Travis checks out the plates.

Hanging out (and on for dear life) at my safety stop.  The current was vicious!

These blue striped grunts talk about current events, religion and what's for dinner.

Spotted this spotted eagle ray on our descent to Conch Reef.

One of our tile racks became the very groomed (and dead) home of a yellow tailed damselfish.  They will often peck away at coral tissue to make room for algal gardens which they grow for food.

Our dive is done....now where is the buoy line?

We rarely see sharks during our dives in Florida, so it was nice to see this nurse shark taking a little nap on the bottom.

A nice Montastrea colony which survived the cold waters from January. 

We had just participated in an AGRRA fish identification training class, so I was busy trying to identify all the fish I saw.  Now, is that actually a yellow tailed snapper?

A close up of M. annularis coral polyps.  Can you see why they are called star corals?

The distinctive groves of a Diploria labyrinthiformis coral (aka the Grooved Brain Coral).

This is a burrfish who has longer spines that a porquipinefish but is bigger than a ballonfish......confused?

After all of the cold weather, this is what most of the inshore reefs looked like.  Lots of bleached or dead colonies.  This is a large Porites astreoides colony.  You can tell that the mortality is recent because algae has not begun to overgrow the bare skeleton yet.

There were quite a few Montastrea colonies that bleached as well.  This M. cavernosa would norally be a dark brown or flourescent green color.

I was surprised at how many fish I saw!  There were huge schools of grunts and snappers in the shallows.  Glad I didn't have to actually count them all!

We needed some corals collected from about 130ft which required a decompression dive.  Since no one in our lab is certified to conduct decompression diving (it requires different gas mixes and a series of safety stops on the ascent), we requested the help of our Diving Safety Officer and two of his students to do the complicated stuff.  And I thought I usually carried around a lot of gear!

Everglades 2010

I got up early on Sunday morning and took a trip out to the Everglades for a nice bike ride and some wildlife viewing.

It was a beautiful day with a little wind and sunny skies.

The usual suspects were all there: Great blue herons, white egrets, snowy egrets, cormorants, anhinghas, tricolor herons, blue herons, green herons, woodstorks, and even a purple gallinule. I didn't bring my A game for photos that day, so unfortunately I didn't get a lot of great pictures.

I hopped off my bike for a quick trip on the Otter Cave Hammock Trail. There weren't any otters, caves or hammocks, but I did find some solution holes. These holes are little pits where the limestone has worn away from exposure to water.

A lot of the birds had their breeding plumage- this anhingha had really bright white stripes on his wings and beautiful blue eye shadow! Rock on!

It's almost mating season for the alligators. I saw this guy with his head out of the water waving his tail around and tried to focus my camera on him so as I was not really paying good attention. He let out a huge bellow which scared me half to death! Comes to find out he was just interested in the little female in the water near him and wasn't interested in eating me! I'm really going to have to work on my situational awareness!

Check out his bellow!

Still love the water lilies- there are about 70 species of water lily found around the world. Some of the most famous lilies are depicted in paintings by Claude Monet.

This tricolor heron almost blends in among the spindly tree trunks.

Great Blue Herons were on both sides of the trail on Sunday and would simply stand there and let me take as many pictures as I wanted. They are so graceful, but have a loud squawk when they get agitated.

The gators looked bigger and much fatter than the last time I was there!

Thought this tree was a beautiful contrast to the dark water around it.

This is a view from the observation tower. If you remember from my last trip to the Everglades in December, this area was covered with alligators. There were only a few gators there this time choosing the best spots for lounging!

And, who pooped in the park (this one is just for you, Chris)? Most likely a raccoon. Although raccoons are typically nocturnal, raccoons that live near the coast will develop a diurnal cycle which mimics the two tides of the day allowing them to take advantage of available food sources. Raccoons are considered among some of the most omnivorous animals in the world eating 40% invertebrates (worms, insects), 33% plants (fruits and nuts) and 27% vertebrates (fish, amphibians, birds and other small mammals).

The main purpose of my visit was to see some Roseate Spoonbills. I only saw two who flew over so fast I didn't get a chance to take a photo. The rangers said that they haven't seen many this year since the cold snap back in January. Could be that their food source (crustaceans, beetles and bugs) was affected by the cold and they have gone in search of other places with more food. Guess that means I'll just have to check back later!

Chili Festival

Another great thing about Florida is the variety of festivals! The Annual Chili Cookoff was a couple of weekends ago up in Fort Lauderdale. And it was packed.

The big draw was the music.  There were 5 shows that day- all country bands that I'd never heard of.  But lots of fun and dancing and excellent people watching......

.......Like this guy.

Megan and Ryan were there.  Megan caught me up on who all the bands were.  I really enjoyed the Zac Brown Band and their song "Chicken Fried".  Unfortunately, Ava had a prior commitment and couldn't make it.

Brent danced the afternoon away.

And Doug was there too!

Funny thing though.....I didn't actually see any chili.  There was plenty of chicken on a stick though!

Empanada tasting #3

Brittany brought us some more empanadas to try- this time they came from the Farmer's Market on Key Biscayne.  By far the best crust we've had.  The spicy chicken wasn't very spicy though, but the beef was excellent!  I would rank this as #1 with Winn-Dixie as #2 and the Grove Bookstore as #3.  Very tough competition though!

SWaPS

Shallow Water Positioning System is a benthic survey technique which allows scientists to collect digital picture images of the benthos to identify seagrass and algae species.  The digital images are analyzed for percent cover using computer software.  Our lab uses the SWaPS technique to survey Biscayne National Park for changes in abundance and species composition of submerged aquatic vegetation in response to changes in salinity due to Everglades restoration.

I went out with Travis, our lab's seagrass technician, to help conduct some surveys around BNP.  Here is our luxury yacht for the day.....a 16ft skiff.  Great little boat with a powerful 25 horsepower engine- perfect for what we use it for and it virtually unsinkable!

We carry out a camera and computer to capture the images while staying nice and dry in the boat because the boat has a glass panel in the bottom. 

A closeup of the glass panel- we survey in really shallow water (usually less than 1 meter) so the panel is perfect for collecting good images of what the bottom looks like without having to worry about getting the camera (or ourselves) wet.

As usual, I had some feathered friends to take pictures of.  This pelican was waiting around the BNP visitor center as we were leaving the dock.

Biscayne National Park is almost completely comprised of water and many different animals, birds and plants are found only here.  For example, there are lots of manatees in the area.  We saw one in the canal on the way out of the park, so the signs remind you to not go too fast to avoid hitting them with your boat or propeller. 

We collect 20 digital images at each site- we go to a GPS point and then let the boat drift in the area surrounding the point.  So, most of our day is spent just sitting around and taking simple water quality measurements like salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen and light while the camera does all the hard work. 

Some of our sites were near the Turkey Point nuclear power plant.  Since it's considered national security, we had to phone ahead to let security personnel know that we were going to be conducting research in the vicinity of their channel.

Mangrove forests edge most of the bay which attracts many birds like this cormorant.

And although most species of plants are adapted to being exposed to saltwater, dead trees are signs that the hot tropics of south Florida can be quite difficult for plants and wildlife.

Our real excitment came when we got buzzed by a helicopter out doing repelling training!  Very cool.